Your Words Are Full of Holes

A few days later, the ninja academy's graduation exam arrived.

For most students, the Clone Technique was the final hurdle.

Some succeeded, while others failed.

Cheers and sighs mingled above the training grounds.

Naruto waited quietly, like a statue utterly out of place among his surroundings.

When it was his turn, he merely stepped forward and formed the most standard hand seal possible.

"Clone Technique!"

"Poof."

A clone appeared beside him.

No more, no less—just one.

Yet that clone was identical to the original in every detail, from the curve of his spiked hair to the worn marks on his pant legs. It was flawless.

Iruka picked up the evaluation sheet, his pen hovering in midair for a long time.

It was not merely a perfect score. His overall assessment placed him first in the class.

The result overturned everything the ninja academy believed it knew.

Once the exam ended, the students who had passed excitedly rushed toward their parents, showing off their newly acquired forehead protectors.

Naruto had no family.

He walked alone toward the table where the forehead protectors were being handed out.

Iruka passed him a brand-new metal forehead protector engraved with the symbol of Konoha.

"Congratulations, Naruto."

He wanted to say something more, perhaps, "You've really grown up," or, "I'm proud of you."

But the words froze on his lips beneath those azure eyes.

There was no joy in them, no excitement—only the calm of someone who had completed an assignment.

Naruto accepted the forehead protector without immediately putting it on. He merely ran his fingertips over its cold metal patterns.

To him, it was simply a mark of identity.

A credential granting entry into this world's armed system.

He turned and left without another word.

The fading sunset stretched his shadow long across the ground—straight and lonely.

Night had deepened.

The ninja academy office was still lit.

A thick stack of student files lay spread before Iruka. The one on top belonged to Naruto.

He flipped through it again and again, trying to find even the faintest trace of familiarity within those cold words and scores.

There was none.

There was nothing.

The past remarks about a failing student stood in absurd contrast to his now nearly perfect report card.

He picked up Naruto's theory exam and studied those answers once more.

"Discuss how to maximize breakout efficiency when outnumbered by the enemy."

Naruto's answer contained only one line.

"Eliminate the command chain, create panic, concentrate superior forces to tear through the weakest point, regardless of cost."

The four words "regardless of cost" had been pressed so deeply by the pen that they nearly pierced the paper.

Iruka's fingers touched those words as if they had burned him, and he jerked his hand back.

The office door opened, and Dan interrupted his thoughts.

Mizuki walked in carrying two cups of hot tea, wearing his usual gentle smile.

"Still here this late, Iruka? Are you still worrying about the students?"

He placed one cup before Iruka and casually glanced at the file on the desk.

"Oh? Naruto's?"

Mizuki's voice carried a hint of teasing.

"That troublesome student who always gave you headaches has now graduated as the top student. You should be happy."

Iruka lifted the teacup. The warm liquid slid down his throat, but it failed to dispel the chill in his heart.

He forced out a smile uglier than a grimace.

"You're right, Mizuki."

"Maybe... I'm just too tired. I'm overthinking it."

Mizuki pulled out a chair and sat across from Iruka, leaning forward slightly in the manner of someone preparing for a heart-to-heart talk.

"We're colleagues, and friends. If something is troubling you, you can tell me."

He did not look at the file. Instead, he stared directly at Iruka.

"It's about Naruto's change, isn't it?"

Iruka remained silent, the knuckles gripping his teacup turning white.

As if he had not noticed Iruka's resistance, Mizuki continued on his own.

"I admit, he really frightened me during the final exam."

"That taijutsu, that strength... he was nothing like a twelve-year-old child."

He paused, seemingly choosing his words carefully.

"But perhaps that's a good thing. After all, he has something sealed inside him..."

"Mizuki!"

Iruka abruptly raised his head, and Dan cut him off.

"Have you forgotten the rule?"

Mizuki immediately raised both hands in surrender, though the smile on his face did not fade in the slightest.

"Sorry, sorry. I misspoke."

"I just think that perhaps that power has begun to awaken, and that's why he has changed like this. Isn't that exactly what the village leadership wants to see? A powerful 'weapon.'"

The word "weapon" stabbed deep into Iruka's heart like a needle.

He could not refute it.

Because the cold logic Naruto had written on his test paper confirmed that word in every way.

"He's not a weapon."

Iruka's voice was low, but stubborn.

"He's a child. He's my student."

"Of course, of course. He is your student."

Mizuki agreed, but his tone became gently persuasive.

"But you've seen it too. He's no longer that idiot who needed you worrying about him at every turn. He's become strong, rational, even... cold."

"Iruka, people change. Perhaps we should accept his growth instead of binding him with how we saw him in the past."

The words sounded reasonable, filled with concern for a student.

Yet Iruka felt an inexplicable irritation rise within him.

Every word Mizuki said was correct, but together they sounded unbearably harsh.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"I'm only worried about you, Iruka."

Mizuki set down his teacup with a soft clink.

"You've invested too much personal emotion in him. It will affect your Dan as a Chunin."

"I noticed that you gave him an overall rating of 'excellent,' but wrote 'psychological condition requires close observation' in the remarks section."

Mizuki's fingers lightly tapped the desk.

"This file is to be submitted to the Hokage. If you write that, it will bring unnecessary trouble to Naruto's future."

"An unstable 'top graduate'? What do you think the people above will think?"

Iruka's heart sank.

He really had written that.

It was his final struggle as a teacher.

"That is my duty."

"Your duty is to train qualified ninja, not to be his nanny!"

For the first time, Mizuki's tone sharpened slightly.

"He has already graduated, Iruka! He is no longer your student. He is a Genin of Konoha! A soldier... one who could be sent into battle at any time!"

"Soldiers do not need unnecessary emotions. They only need obedience and efficiency. From that perspective, Naruto is more qualified than any of us now!"

Iruka slammed a hand against the desk, wanting to argue, only to find that he could not say a single word.

Mizuki's words were like a scalpel, precisely cutting open every one of his doubts and fears before reducing them, bloody and exposed, to "soft-heartedness."

"I... understand."

In the end, he compromised.

He picked up his pen and crossed out that remark.

Mizuki watched him do it, and the gentle smile returned to his face.

"That's more like it. For the students' sake, sometimes we must make some rational Dan judgments."

He stood and patted Iruka on the shoulder.

"Get some rest. You'll be leading a team tomorrow."

With that, he turned and left the office.

The instant the door closed, the smile vanished from Mizuki's face without a trace.

In its place was cold, sinister calculation.

The Naruto from before was sufficiently foolish, but not strong enough.

The Naruto now... seemed far too strong.

Still, it did not matter.

No matter how powerful a beast was, as long as one found its weakness, it could still be tamed.

And he happened to know Naruto's weakness.

The night was as black as ink, blurring the outline of Konoha.

On the training ground, only heavy breathing and the dull thuds of fists striking wooden posts echoed in turns.

Sweat ran down Naruto's tense jawline, striking the ground and spreading into small dark stains.

Every punch and every kick carried mechanical precision.

The tearing in his muscles and the groaning of his bones were not pain to him, but physical benchmarks that had to be met.

"Physical limit... seventy-three percent."

"Heart rate... one hundred and eighty-two beats per minute, still within the safety threshold."

"Reaction speed... increased by Zero point two percent compared to yesterday."

His mind calmly processed every piece of data from his body. The peaceful chirping insects and night wind of Konoha were nothing but meaningless noise in his ears.

It was too quiet here.

So quiet it was like a graveyard, full of complacency and fatal weaknesses.

His thoughts drifted uncontrollably back to that world filled with roaring artillery fire and the shrieks of alien creatures.

There, every training session was a brush with death.

An instructor's electrified whip could easily tear open flesh, while the automated machine guns on the training ground would ruthlessly gun down any "recruit" who stayed down for more than three seconds.

Compared to that, Konoha's nights were so comfortable they were nauseating.

A faint footstep came from the forest.

Naruto's movements stopped instantly. His body became a fully drawn bow, every inch of muscle entering a combat state.

His gaze locked onto the source of the sound, his blue eyes glinting with cold light in the darkness.

"Who?"

His voice was not loud, but it carried unquestionable force.

A figure stepped out from behind a tree, wearing a kind smile so false it was almost obvious.

It was Mizuki.

"It's me, Naruto. You're still training so late? You're really working hard."

Mizuki's gaze swept over Naruto's sweat-soaked clothes and scar-covered fists, and a trace of barely detectable contempt flashed through his eyes.

In his view, this was merely an isolated child venting his resentment through a foolish method.

"I understand how you feel, Naruto."

Mizuki's voice grew heavy, filled with the sincerity of someone who supposedly understood completely.

"They all treat you like a monster, reject you, isolate you... I understand that feeling all too well."

"You must really want everyone's recognition, right? You want to become Hokage and make those who once looked down on you see you in a new light!"

Mizuki's words were like a key, attempting to open the deepest door of resentment in Naruto's heart.

His voice was full of temptation.

Naruto's mind raced, breaking Mizuki's words down into individual units of Shin.

"Appeal to emotion... exploit identity... incite personal ambition..."

These were the lowest-level methods of heretical seduction described in the Imperium political commissar's handbook.

How laughable.

Deep in his memories, certain scenes truly surged forth.

Those evasive gazes, those parents hurriedly pulling their children away, those shopkeepers' undisguised disgust.

"Get lost, you monster!"

"Stay away from my child!"

Those voices had once been like sharp ice picks, piercing him until he was covered in wounds.

But now, those so-called "pains" seemed so childish, so insignificant before the mountains of corpses and seas of blood he had witnessed.

They could not even stir a single ripple in the lake of his heart.

Yet amid those cold ruins of memory, an entirely different image emerged.

A girl with blunt bangs, always hiding in a corner and secretly watching him with pure white eyes tinged with timidity.

There was no disgust in her gaze, no fear.

There was only a... clumsy concern that did not know where to settle.

Once, he had been knocked to the ground by older children, covered in mud.

Everyone else watched from afar, but only she clutched a small jar of ointment. She wanted to approach but did not dare, becoming so anxious that her eyes turned red.

Hinata Hyuga.

That name was like a faint star, giving off the slightest, most insignificant light in the cold universe within him, filled with "loyalty" and "reason."

A "variable" that could not be explained through logic.

"I have a way to make everyone acknowledge you overnight, even surpass the Hokage."

Mizuki's voice pulled Naruto's thoughts back to reality.

Naruto raised his eyes. His blue gaze remained calm and undisturbed, yet his precise control over his expression disguised it as intense excitement.

"What way? What way?"

Mizuki was delighted inside, thinking that the brat had indeed taken the bait.

He lowered his voice and spoke with feigned mystery.

"In the Hokage's Office, there's a Scroll of Seals hidden away. It records powerful forbidden techniques left behind by the previous Hokage. As long as you learn one or two of them, you'll become the strongest ninja in the village!"

"Then who would dare look down on you?"

Mizuki's face was full of incitement. He seemed to have already imagined Naruto gratefully handing the Scroll of Seals over to him.

This stupid monster was indeed still that little brat desperate for recognition.

He did not notice at all that, while he painted that beautiful future, Naruto looked at him as though he were watching a clown.

Full of holes.

Chaotic logic.

Crude motives.

Would a Chunin loyal to the village incite a Jinchūriki to steal the Scroll of Seals, which recorded forbidden techniques?

Conclusion: Mizuki, traitor.

Disposition plan: Capture, interrogate, purge.

"Fine."

Naruto spat out the word, crisp and decisive.

The smile on Mizuki's face widened.

He carefully told Naruto the route for infiltrating the Hokage Building and how to obtain the scroll, then patted him on the shoulder.

"I'll wait for you in the woods outside the village. Come over immediately once you have it!"

With that, he vanished into the night.

In the woods, Mizuki leaned against a tree, feeling incomparably pleased.

The plan was flawless.

He would have that monster steal the scroll, then appear as the hero who recovered it and shift all the blame onto Naruto.

Not only would he obtain powerful forbidden techniques, he would also get rid of this "scourge" in the village.

Two birds with one stone.

He had even begun imagining his future rise through the village ranks after mastering the forbidden techniques.

Meanwhile, Naruto had already slipped into the Hokage Building like a ghost.

To him, the defenses here were practically nonexistent.

The ANBU patrol routes followed fixed cycles, and the barrier's energy fluctuations were so weak they could be ignored.

He easily obtained the enormous scroll.

He opened the Scroll of Seals and gave it a cursory glance.

Multiple Shadow Clone Technique?

Impure World Reincarnation?

Reaper Death Seal?

A hint of disdain flashed through Naruto's eyes.

Through these forbidden techniques, he saw the Second Hokage's lack of Shin. A Hokage incapable of unifying the village into a solid whole had attempted to use forbidden techniques as a trump card against risk.

But in reality, these so-called trump cards were more likely to become the greatest risks.

Naruto recalled the disciplined ranks of Imperium soldiers and their resolute, icy expressions. Thought, too, was a powerful weapon.

He rolled up the scroll, slung it across his back, and headed toward the place Mizuki had mentioned.

A clearing in the woods.

Moonlight filtered through sparse branches, scattering mottled patches of light and shadow.

When Mizuki saw Naruto appear with the scroll on his back, his face immediately filled with a greedy smile.

"Well done, Naruto! Hurry, give me the scroll!"

He eagerly reached out.

Naruto stood where he was, utterly still.

"Before you take it, I have a few questions."

His voice was especially clear in the silent woods.

"First, why could the Scroll of Seals, the village's greatest secret, be so easily stolen by a newly graduated Genin like me?"

"Second, why are you, a Chunin, so familiar with the Hokage Building's defensive arrangements?"

"Third, you incited me to steal forbidden techniques and promised me a future you could not deliver. What exactly is your true purpose?"

The string of questions was like a series of sharp blades, instantly tearing through Mizuki's hypocritical mask.

The smile froze on Mizuki's face.

He stared at Naruto in astonishment, as though seeing this brat for the first time.

"You... what nonsense are you talking about? Give me the scroll!"

Naruto removed the scroll from his back and casually tossed it at his feet.

"Based on my Dan, you betrayed Konoha long ago. You intend to steal forbidden techniques and defect to another faction, or... serve some organization lurking in the shadows."

"And I was merely a pawn and scapegoat in your plan, one you could discard at any moment."

"Your plan is crude, Mizuki. Your disguise is even more full of holes."

Every word struck Mizuki's heart like a heavy hammer.

The greed in his eyes was instantly replaced by terror and fury.

This brat... how could he know?!

"You monster! I really can't let you live!"

With his scheme completely exposed, Mizuki flew into a rage. He pulled out a massive shuriken from behind his back and hurled it at Naruto.

"Die!"

He would dispose of both Naruto and the scroll at once!

The giant shuriken screamed through the air, aimed directly at Naruto's head.

Yet Naruto stood in place without even blinking.

Just before the shuriken was about to hit him.

His body shifted slightly to the side at an angle no ordinary person could achieve.

The shuriken grazed his cheek, carrying away a strand of golden hair before burying itself deep in the tree trunk behind him.

Prediction.

On the battlefield, any soldier incapable of predicting an enemy's trajectory had already turned to dust.

Mizuki's pupils contracted sharply.

That was no coincidence!

Before he could react, Naruto moved.

No hand signs, no flashy movements.

He simply lunged forward, instantly closing the distance.

So fast!

Alarm bells rang wildly in Mizuki's mind as he instinctively retreated and raised a guard.

But Naruto's attack was nothing like any taijutsu style he knew.

A chop of the hand struck precisely at the joint of Mizuki's wrist holding the kunai.

Crack!

The crisp sound of shattering bone rang through the night sky.

The agonizing pain drew a scream from Mizuki, and the kunai slipped from his hand.

But Naruto's assault did not stop. A knee drove viciously into Mizuki's abdomen.

"Puh—"

Mizuki flew backward like a boiled shrimp, body bent over. He did not stop until he crashed into a large tree, vomiting sour fluid mixed with stomach acid.

How was this possible...

How had this brat's taijutsu become so... efficient, so deadly? And it was completely unlike the style of ordinary ninja!

At that moment, an anxious voice came from outside the woods.

"Stop! What are you doing?!"

Iruka arrived, panting heavily, just in time to see Naruto stepping toward the fallen Mizuki.

"Naruto! Stop! What is going on here?"

Iruka stood in front of Naruto, attempting to stop him.

Yet Naruto merely swept him with those cold blue eyes.

"Iruka-sensei, this matter does not concern you."

"I am purging a traitor. Please do not obstruct official business."

That icy tone made Iruka feel as though he had fallen into an ice cellar.

Official business? Purging a traitor?

What were those words supposed to mean?

Iruka instinctively spread his arms, completely blocking the path. "What nonsense are you talking about? Mizuki is a Chunin of the village. Even if he made a mistake, the Hokage and ANBU should handle it! You can't..."

His words abruptly stopped.

Because Naruto made a simple movement.

He stepped forward, his body tilting slightly to the left.

It was only such a simple movement, yet Iruka felt an invisible pressure crash toward him. He even had the illusion that if he did not move aside, Naruto's attack would fall without hesitation upon his most vulnerable vital point the next second.

His body reacted faster than his will.

Stiffly and involuntarily, he took half a step back.

Through that half-step gap, Naruto had already flowed past him like water, not even stirring the slightest breeze with the hem of his clothes. The entire process was fluid, efficient, without a single unnecessary movement, as though he had practiced it thousands of times.

Iruka suddenly turned around, only able to see Naruto's familiar yet unfamiliar back.

Iruka opened his mouth, but could not say a single word.

First shock, then fear.

That was not the Naruto he knew.

The Naruto who would cheer excitedly over a bowl of ramen, who would foolishly grin after receiving recognition, was gone.

He walked step by step toward Mizuki, who had been scared out of his wits. His strides were not large, but they were unnervingly steady, every step spaced with exact precision, as though measured with a ruler.

Naruto went around Iruka. Mizuki was his only target.

"You... monster!"

Mizuki struggled to his feet, his eyes filled with terror.

As he watched Naruto advance step by step, that gaze and that presence reminded him of the coldest interrogators in the Torture and Interrogation Corps.

No, even more terrifying than them!

It was an absolute indifference that regarded life as worthless!

"Don't come any closer!"

Mizuki's psychological defenses completely collapsed. He turned and ran in utter disarray.

The corner of Naruto's mouth curled into an almost imperceptible arc.

It was the expression of a hunter who had finally seen his prey expose an opening.

He did not chase after him.

He merely formed hand signs rapidly.

"Ninja Art: Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"

Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!

More than a hundred Narutos instantly appeared in the clearing, sealing off the entire area so completely that not even water could pass through.

Every Shadow Clone carried the same icy killing intent as the original.

Iruka and Mizuki were both stunned.

Th-This is a forbidden technique from the Scroll of Seals!

When did he...

Mizuki was surrounded by more than a dozen Shadow Clones. Front, back, left, right—there was no way out.

Naruto's real body slowly walked up to him, looking down at him from above.

"The game is over, traitor."

He raised a hand, fingers spread, aiming it at Mizuki, who lay limp on the ground.

"Now, judgment will be carried out."